ABSTRACT
In this chapter, Christopher Bonovitz locates potential therapeutic action in the emergence of the therapist’s childhood and his/her internal struggle to grasp and make sense of the memories, fleeting images, and reminiscences newly contextualized and reconfigured by the dyadic system within the analytic situation. Attention is directed to state changes and shifting patterns within the therapist– patient dyad in which the therapist comes to know aspects of his own childhood through various transference and countertransference configurations. The focus here is on the nonverbal and procedural levels of communication between therapist and child – motor movements, sounds, and visual images – that, in conjunction with verbal content, communicate emotional states and establish rhythmic dialogue. Bonovitz provides us with a detailed account of his dialogue with Peter, as he utilizes his own childhood memories to further his patient’s self-regulatory capacity and increase his interpersonal flexibility when negotiating social and emotional terrain.
